The Los Angeles Lakers are gearing up to partake in the 2025-26 NBA season, but their problems are rising as the new season nears. While the team is starting to adjust to the fact that they will be without superstar LeBron James for the start of the new campaign, injuries to Marcus Smart and Maxi Kleber have added to their worries.
The Lakers seek to win the championship, as they last achieved that feat during the 2020 pandemic-restricted season. That time, the partnership between LeBron and Anthony Davis led the Lakers to the title.
Now, Los Angeles wants to repeat that feat with the James-Dončić partnership and maybe a third superstar in the near future, which can definitely shake up the league. Lakers analyst Jovan Buha voiced his take on LA being more open to a win-now trade situation.
What Did Buha Say About the Lakers’ Win-Now Trade Perspective?
In his latest report and Q&A video, Buha, while responding to a fan’s question, revealed why he thinks the Lakers could go for another league’s superstar and further their chances of winning the title.
Buha said, “I wonder if the Lakers recent shift toward being more of a kind of short-term or like win-now mode is maybe in part due to Doncic’s success at Eurobasket, but I think more so maybe gaining some intel that some of the big fish that they were hoping to catch are not going to be available or as available as they thought.”
The “Lakers can swoop in and potentially offer a competitive package” for Giannis, Jovan Buha says 👀
LAL will have three tradable first-round picks and three swaps next summer and the opportunity to create a future legendary duo of Luka & Giannis 🤝 pic.twitter.com/zC2ZHuhLYY
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) October 13, 2025
He added, “I think the Lakers got to be careful with how they position themselves for the future because if it’s tough to find a Knicks-Giannis trade. So if that, for whatever reason, just can’t happen and Milwaukee refuses to play ball with New York because they just don’t want to trade him in conference, they don’t like what New York’s offering, then the Lakers can swoop in and potentially offer a competitive package…”
Buha concluded, “You got to be careful with the cap space, but it does seem like the Lakers are a little bit more open to a short-term move.” They only recently inducted Dončić into their preseason training due to his prior commitment with the National team, where he played in the FIBA Euro Championship last month.
Whatever happens in the following trade window or during the offseason, the Lakers currently have a good group of players. They have played three preseason games without either Dončić or James, winning one and losing two.
They defeated the Warriors last night at home and will now be looking to finish their preseason journey on a high before the new season’s opening night.
